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| McConnell Rejects Calling Mulvaney or Bolton for Impeachment Trial | McConnell Rejects Calling Mulvaney or Bolton for Impeachment Trial |
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| WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, on Tuesday rejected demands by Democrats to call four White House officials as witnesses during President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. | WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, on Tuesday rejected demands by Democrats to call four White House officials as witnesses during President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. |
| On the eve of a House vote on Wednesday that is all but certain to result in Mr. Trump’s impeachment on two charges, Mr. McConnell said he would not agree to call the witnesses — all of whom have firsthand knowledge of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine — including Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, and John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser. The White House blocked them from appearing during the House impeachment inquiry. | On the eve of a House vote on Wednesday that is all but certain to result in Mr. Trump’s impeachment on two charges, Mr. McConnell said he would not agree to call the witnesses — all of whom have firsthand knowledge of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine — including Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, and John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser. The White House blocked them from appearing during the House impeachment inquiry. |
| Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, had insisted in a letter to Mr. McConnell that they must be heard from. | Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, had insisted in a letter to Mr. McConnell that they must be heard from. |
| But in remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday morning, Mr. McConnell said there was no reason for the Senate to immediately agree to take testimony from officials who might bolster Democrats’ case against the president. | |
| Mr. McConnell called Mr. Schumer’s demand for witnesses “a strange request at this juncture,” leaving open the possibility that the Senate could decide to call witnesses after a trial is underway. But Mr. McConnell made it clear that making that decision before the trial started was premature. | |
| “If House Democrats’ case is this deficient, this thin, the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,” he added. “The answer is that the House should not impeach on this basis in the first place.” | “If House Democrats’ case is this deficient, this thin, the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,” he added. “The answer is that the House should not impeach on this basis in the first place.” |
| Mr. Schumer responded moments later, saying that holding a trial without witnesses “would be an aberration” and vowing to demand votes by senators on whether to call witnesses and subpoena documents during the trial. | |
| “I did not hear a single sentence, a single argument as to why the witnesses I suggested should not give testimony,” Mr. Schumer said of Mr. McConnell’s remarks. “Impeachment trials, like most trials, have witnesses.” | |
| Mr. Schumer added: “Who is for a fair and open trial? Who is for hiding facts, relevant facts, immediate facts?” | |
| Mr. McConnell’s comments came as the most politically vulnerable House Democrats in moderate districts continued to announce their support for the impeachment charges, signaling that the House vote expected on Wednesday is likely to be almost entirely along party lines. | |
| Many of them said they were aware that the decision to support charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice against Mr. Trump could cost them support in their conservative-leaning districts. | |
| Representative Anthony Brindisi, a freshman Democrat from upstate New York, said in a statement that he would vote for the articles of impeachment with “profound sadness.” But he said Mr. Trump needed to be held accountable for his actions. | |
| “I will be voting not as Democrat or Republican but as an American who has been given this responsibility by the people I serve and the community I love,” Mr. Brindisi wrote in an early morning series of tweets. | |
| Mr. Brindisi is one of 23 freshman lawmakers who represent a district that voted for Mr. Trump in 2016. | |
| Representative Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania posted a video on Twitter late Monday announcing her support for the articles, and Representatives Elaine Luria of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey declared their support early Tuesday. | |
| The cascade of announcements from lawmakers who had been deeply skeptical of the drive to force Mr. Trump from office was a sign of Democratic unity on the eve of the House vote. | |
| Only one centrist Democrat, Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, intends to break with his party and vote “no” on impeachment, and he is planning to switch his affiliation to Republican to insulate himself politically. | |
| The charges against Mr. Trump stem from his bid to pressure Ukraine to open investigations into his political rivals while withholding $391 million in military assistance from the country and delaying a White House meeting with its president. Democrats argue the conduct amounted to a corrupt attempt by the president to use the powers of his office to enlist a foreign power to interfere on his behalf in the 2020 election, while Republicans assert there was nothing inappropriate in his actions. | |
| Mr. Brindisi said in a newspaper opinion piece that he became convinced of the president’s wrongdoing after carefully reviewing the evidence collected by the House Intelligence Committee after nearly two months of testimony from national security officials and diplomats in Mr. Trump’s government. | |
| “The fact that the president made a political request to a foreign leader of a troubled country with the intention for it to impact an American rival is beyond disappointing,” Mr. Brindisi wrote. “In fact, it is unconstitutional. I took an oath to defend the Constitution. What the president has — on national television — admitted to doing is not something I can pretend is normal behavior.” | |
| Mr. Brindisi stressed his willingness to work with Mr. Trump on legislation, noting that the president signed into law his first bill, a measure to extend housing and transportation benefits to veterans. But he said “there is a difference between working with a president and checking that same president. | |
| “My job is to do both,” he wrote. | |
| In her statement, Ms. Houlahan said she would vote to impeach the president on Wednesday in order to make sure Congress did not send the message that his behavior was appropriate. | |
| “After deep reflection, I believe this is the right thing to do for our nation and consistent with my oath of office,” she said. “I grieve for our nation. But I cannot let history mark the behavior of our president as anything other than an unacceptable violation of his oath of office. The future of our republic and of our values depend on that.” |